17/07/2018

Catrin Nye hosts a series of monthly national debates from locations across Wales. This edition comes from Abercynon and tackles the subject of the NHS.

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The Hour heads to the Cynon Valley to debate the NHS, 70 years on from its birth. What is the prognosis for healthcare in Wales? And what is the treatment the system needs to provide all people with the best healthcare?

When Aneurin Bevan modelled the new NHS on the workers' medical aid society in his hometown of Tredegar back in 1948, he thought that as the health of the nation improved, so funding for the NHS would fall. But the opposite has happened.

Medical advances mean that we are living longer and expect new treatments and technologies to keep us healthy and alive for as long as possible. Last year, patients in Wales came into contact with the NHS 20 million times. In Wales, more people work for the NHS - the country's largest employer -than can fit in the Principality Stadium. And the NHS is arguably the Welsh government's most important responsibility - with health and social care spending taking up 43 per cent of its entire budget.

The NHS is under more pressure than ever before. But there are hard questions to be asked. Predominantly, is the system in Wales really set up to look after our 21st-century health needs?

Some are saying it's up to us as individuals to take better care of ourselves. Two of Wales's biggest killers in health terms are obesity and diet-related diabetes - and they are on the increase. Adults with diabetes have increased by a third within the last ten years. The proportion of children under the age of five who are either overweight or obese is already over 25 per cent and growing. Isn't it time we stopped complaining about having to wait to see a doctor and took our health into our own hands?

Presenter Catrin Nye and a lively audience, including politicians, medics and experts, grapple with the issues in The Hour from Abercynon, while reporter Steffan Powell delves into the data and takes a look at what people are saying on social media.